Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Just taken the Happiness Test, and I'm so dismayed with the result. Anyway, to sum this up, I'm below the Philippines' line of happiness, which means, the mean score of the Philippines in the Happy Planet Index. Thankfully, I'm above the worldwide average, but not in the ideal average.

Here's the details of my test.

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Happy Planet Index

Your personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 51.8, which is similar to that of countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina or Timor-Leste. Not bad. This is above the world average of 46, but still below the target value of 83, so there is more you can do to improve your health and well-being, or reduce your environmental impact. Your score is below that of your country, 59.2.

Below is a breakdown of the various components that make up your HPI score.

You:

51.8

Average:

43.2

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Life Expectancy

Congratulations. Your life expectancy is above average for your gender and country. Whether it's eating well, not smoking, getting regular exercise, or just being lucky enough to have the right genes, you're doing something right. However, nobody's perfect and we could all improve our health a little! Aside from getting all the above bits of your lifestyle right, there are some more surprising factors that can influence your life expect - for example, giving up your car, avoiding living alone, moving out of the city or shrugging off stress.

You:

69.7

Average:

80.8

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Ecological Footprint

Your ecological footprint is 2.28 global hectares, or 1.27 planets. This is equivalent to the average in countries such as Suriname, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Lebanon.

Your ecological footprint is greater than the average for the country you live in. If you live in a country with large economic inequalities, do note that this might be the case even if you are environmentally aware and trying to reduce your footprint, as others in your country might be living in very different circumstances. For example, Brazil's mean footprint of 2.2 g ha does not distinguish between the very low consumption lives of tribes in the Amazon, and those of people living Western-style lives in the big cities, whose personal footprints will inevitably be much higher.

You are using between one and one and a half times your share of the planet's resources (assuming no resources are put aside for other species). This is below average for industrialised countries, typical instead of people in many middle income countries such as Jamaica. The world average is 2.2 g ha. For those living in industrialised countries: you are probably already aware of your resource use, and act considerately. Knocking those last few deci-hectares of your footprint is, we know, very tricky. For people in the west, the most effective steps to take include the following:

Cut down on meat. Depending on the animal you're eating and what it's been fed, it could be taking up to 16 pounds of crop feed from the fields to get 1 pound of meat into the supermarket. Of course, meat is not the only issue at hand. If your protein-rich vegan diet is being imported from the other side of the world, that's not too good for your footprint either.

Perhaps the most guaranteed, but also most painful, way to reduce your footprint is to cut down on flights. For example, flying from London to Athens and back adds 0.77 g ha to your footprint - more than people in many countries use over an entire year.

You:

2.28

Average:

5.42

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Life Satisfaction

You reported a life satisfaction of 7, which is about average for many Western countries, including the UK, Spain and Italy. Worldwide, 58% of respondents in the World Values Survey reported a life satisfaction of 7 or lower.

You:

7

Average:

6.74

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Well-being

The new economics foundation (nef) recognises that there's more to life than feeling good, which is why our model for well-being is based on four domains – personal feelings, personal functionings, social feelings and social functionings. 'Feelings' refers to your attitude to the way you, your future and society are. 'Functionings' looks at whether you have the opportunities to do the things that bring you well-being. Like with life satisfaction, a score of 5 is theoretically the middle score, but, given the way most people respond to surveys, is below average.

Personal Feelings

In this online questionnaire, personal feelings are assessed with two questions – one testing your optimism and one testing your self-esteem.

You have some anxieties about the future or yourself which are affecting your overall well-being. These are not too severe though...

You:

5.05

Average:

6.03

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Personal Functionings

In this online questionnaire personal functionings are assessed with five questions – two evaluating your subjective opinion on your health and how activity you are, the other three testing you for feelings of autonomy, purpose and worth.

You are healthy and overall feel autonomous, purposeful and able to demonstrate your abilities to others.

You:

5.97

Average:

6.14

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Social Feelings

In this online questionnaire social feelings are assessed with four questions – three assessing your opinion of your community, whilst the last looks at personal relationships.

You have a strong sense of trust and belonging in your community and a happy personal life.

You:

5.81

Average:

5.67

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Social Functionings

In this online questionnaire social functionings are assessed with four questions – two assessing your job / studies, one your free time, and one your community participation. If you did not respond to the work / study questions, your score is judged purely on the other two aspects.

Your job / course is not really allowing you to function socially in the way that you wish. Either it is very dull and unrewarding, or it is very stressful, leaving you little time to do the things you enjoy - or a bit of both! Are they any ways you could make it a little better for you? Alternatively, one way to relieve the boredom of work, can be to find other focuses of interest. Many take up voluntary work to offer them an alternative purpose.

You:

4.61

Average:

5.59

[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

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Well, maybe is the time for me to be happy more often. No, wait. That would kill me.